Improvement in plow-sulkies



2 Sheets-Sheet-2.

C. SIEGORDNER. Plow-Sulky.

No. 208,426. Patentedsept. 24,1878.

UNI'I'ED S'I'ATESV ATEN'I' IMPROVEMENT IN PLOW-SULKIES.

Spccilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 298,426, datedSeptember 24, 1878; application led July 2, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, CONRAD SrEGRDNnR, of Butler county, State of Ohio,have invented a new and useful Improvement in Plow-Sulliies, of whichthe following is a speciiication:

This invention belongs to that class of agricultural implements whichare intended to lighten the plowmans toil and increase his capacity forwork by giving him a seat upon a wheeled vehicle while engaged inplowing. Machines of this class are in common use, and are calledsulky-plows77 or riding-plows. I call my invention a plow-sulky, for thereason that it relates solely to the vehicle and not to the plow.

The object of my invention is to produce a sulky which may be soadjusted as to adapt it to most any of the usual forms and sizes ofplows, and which will, after adjustment, give the rider the most perfectcontrol over the plow under every varying condition incident to changeof surface of land, character of soil, &c.

I wish it understood that my invention does not pertain to or seek tocover, broadly, ridingplows. There are many such devices, and it isexperience, based on the knowledge of many of these machines, whichsuggests the improvements forming my invention.

My invention consists of a frame provided with a pair of wheels, atongue havin a limited swinging motion upon a vertical pivot, anadjustable suspension for the plow, an adjustable depressor for thefront end ot' the plowbeam, an adjustable sub-frame pivoted to the mainframe in such a manner as to allow the front end to fall freely, and towhose front end the plow is loosely attached, and a device for twistingthe plow, all arranged so as to act and coact, as will be explained.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure lis a perspective view ot' myimproved sulky with a plow attached, Fig. 2, a side elevation of thedevices attached to the main frame for suspending the beam anddepressing its forward end; Fig. 3, a section of the machine exhibitinga side elevation of that portion ofthe sub-frame which carries theinitial parts of the twisting devices 5 and Figli, an elemental frontview of the machine, exhibiting the axle, wheels, tongue-deck, tongue insection, the

plow with its beam in section, and the axlestirrups U, by which the axleis joined to other parts.

The main frame consists of the axle D, with its two wheels, ton gue-deckQ, stirrups U, and stretchers P. I will describe this main frame, withits direct attachments. as an independent structure, and will thenproceed to describe other portions of the device.

The axleD is arched at the center, in order to allow the plow-beam spacefor movement. On each end of the axle is placed a wheel, but, instead ofthe axes Vof both wheels being in line, one is very much elevated, asshown in Fig. 4. This allows the general structure to be nearly levelwhen one wheel is in the furrow, it being understood that the high wheelruns upon the land and the low wheel in the furrow. Both wheels are ofthe same diameter. Forward of the axle, and to the furrow side of thecenter, is placed the tonguedeck Q, which is connected with the axle bythe stretchers P. These stretchers are bars bolted to lugs upon theunder side of the tongue-deck and at their other ends to the stirrups U,which are rigidly attached to the axle. A third stretcher, V, connectsthe front end of the rst-ment-ioned stretchers with the axle at itsarch. The tongue-deck Q is a plate, upon whose upper surface is pivotedthe tongue It. Lugs Z, cast upon the upper side of the deck, serve tolimit the swinging motion ot' the tongue, their inner faces beingsomewhat farther apart than the breadth ot' the tongue would normallysuggest. It should now be understood that the main frame is simply apeculiar wheeled vehicle, having a tongue with some pivoting motion.

The drivers seat is attached to the axle. A notched segment, N, isbolted to the axle-arch near the drivers seat, and to this segment ispivoted the adjusting suspension-lever M, which is in bell-crank form,and from whose horizontal arm a chain, O, is led to the plowbeam, andthere attached in a position about over the point.

The plow to be used with this sulky may be of any of the usual forms,and devices will in good time be described which are intended to renderthe sulky adaptable to varying dimensions of plows. The track of theplow is cen- 2 zeenee trally between the wheels, with the point directlyunder or a little behind the axle.

As far as described, it should be understood that we have a wheeledvehicle with a plow beneath it, and that by means of thesuspension-lever M we can regulate the depth of furrow.

Here it will be well to state that the beam at the point where the chainO is attached is at liberty to move or swing sidewise till in onedirection it comes in contact with the furrow side of the arch. In theother direction it is checkedV bythe chain a, which is simply hitched tothe beam and to the axle between the furrow-wheel and the furrow side ofthe arch. Vhen the sulky is in operation this check-chain is nevercalled upon. The beam is, within working limits, perfectly free at thispoint, the only connection with the axle being the suspension-chain O,which governs the depth of furrow.

0n the front end of the main frame is bolted a notched segment,furnishing a pivot for the depressing-lever T and mortises for thevertically-sliding depressor S. This arrangement is more plainly shownin Fig. 2. The depressor S is connected with its lever by the link IV.It is obvious that the lever T will thus vary the vertical position ofthe depressor.

The ofce of the depressor is to prevent the rising of the front end ofthe plow-beam, and for simplicitys sake I will say that when the frontend of the beam tends to rise past the adjusted limit, it will come incontact with the lower end of the depressor, and can rise no farther. Infact, the depressor does not act upon the plow-beam directly, but uponintervening parts, which, however, have no effect upon its functions,but are incident entirely7 to other offices.

The suspending and depressing mechanism having been described, it may bewell to explain their operation, as their offices a-re dependent onlyupon each other.

In connection with Fig. 2 it should be understood that when the driverwishes to adjust the depth of furrow he operates the suspension-lever Mtill the 'general position of the plow is correct; but in case helowered the beam at that point, it is obvious that the front end of thebeam will be too high, that the plow will not be level, and that it willnot take to the earth. To rectify this he adjusts the depressor S so asto force down the front end of the beam. This, of course, makes thematter right, and under ordinary circumstances the suspension-lever Mremains untouched in an unvaryin g soil.

The depressor is operated whenever the driver desires to lower or raisethe point of the plow.

The plow may rise bodily from the ground, the chain O not interfering inany way; but under no circumstances can the point run upward, as such atendency is suppressed by the depressor acting upon the front end of thebeam.

I now come to the devices for attaching the plow to the vehicle, for itmust have been noticed that thus far the plow has been spoken of asbeing simply under the vehicle, the only attachments mentioned beingsuch as limit the upward motion of the front end of the beam and thedownward motion of the other parts of the beam.

The stirrups U, which are attached to the axle just inside the wheels,carry pivots, on which swing the blocks X. (Shown in Fig. 3.) Thesub-frame I is clamped to these blocks. The sub-frame I forms two sidesof a triangle, the apex of which lies over the plow-beam in theneighborhood of the depressor. The subframe I is at this point providedwith the free joint J, by which it is attached to the plowbeam near theclevis. A simple bolted clamp, as shown, serves the purpose ofattachment. The extremities of the sub-frame I are clamped to thestirrup-blocks X before mentioned.

It will now be seen that the plow is attached loosely to the apex of thesub-frame, and that the sub-frame is pivoted to the axlestirrups.

The team is hitched to the clevis, as usual, and in adapting the sulkyto different plows it may be lengthened or shortened at thestirrup-blocks X by means of the clamps Y, and the pivot-point may beraised or lowered by means of a series of holes in the stirrups, asshown in Fig. 3.

The office of the sub-frame I is to connect the plow with the axle, andat the same time give it freedom to drop at the front end and to twist.This word twist7 will be used to indicate that rolling adjustment givento a plow to keep it steady and turn its furrow uniformly.

XVe now come to the devices for twisting the plow so as to compensatefor the sidehill lay of the land, variation in depth, &c.

It will be seen that no twisting devices can be conveniently attached tothe main frame, for that part is practically independent of the plow.The sub-frame, however, retains an almost uniform relation to the beamat the front end, and this oers the most suitable place for attachingany direct twist-adjusting devices.

The land side of the sub frame projects rearward past the axle, as atII, and on this projection is rigidly mounted the notched segment E,having a lever, F, pivoted to it.

A skeleton lever, C, is attached to the front end of the plow-beam andprojects landward. This lever is attached to the beam rigidly in onedirection, so that if the end of it be raised or lowered the attachmentwill not yield, but the plow will be twisted 5 but if moved horizontallyit will pivot upon its attaching-bolt. A radius-bar, H, reaches from theextremity of the twisting-lever C to the stirrup-pivot of the sub-frame,as shown plainly in Fig. 3. A

connecting-rod, G, connects the extremities of the twisting-lever G withthe hand-lever F.

It is obvious that the hand-lever Fcan thus cause any degree of twist tobe given to the plow, and that all of the twisting machinery is free tofollow the movements of the subframe.

Any of the hand-levers shown may, if desired, be made foot-levers byproper construction.

I claim as my inventionl. In a sulky-plow, the combination, with themain frame and plow-beam, of the subframe I, the guide-chain a, thelifting-lever and chain M O, and Jthe adjustable non-lifting depressor'l S, substantially as shown and specified.

2. The axle D, sub-frame I, articulating joint J, twisting-lever C,radius-bar H, conmeeting-rod G, and adjusting-lever F, all combinedsubstantially as specified.

CONRAD SIEGORDNER.

Witnesses:

H. C. HUME, R. S. CARR.

